Reasons we fight
by Thelow
Summary: Two ninja rush throught the woods in search of the ones who have kidnapped someone very close to them. Oneshot. HinaNaru NaruHina.


Reasons we fight

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

She was moving quickly, she knew she had too. She had to get there, she couldn't let this happen. She moved quickly tree branch to tree branch. It was a full moon, giving off just enough light for them to see the path ahead. She moved with extreme haste, not caring at all about being silent, she just had an extreme sense of urgency. What Kurenai couldn't understand was why Hatake Kakashi seemed to be even more desperate than she was.

'_Hinata_…' Kurenai knew why she left. Cloud had managed to sneak into the borders and once again kidnap her precious student. There was no way in hell that she was going to let her suffer that fate that awaited her. She didn't care if she had to cross the borders to save her student. She would go to hell to save her, she knew that.

But why was Kakashi more urgent to find her than she was? She was already a mile away from Konoha on the trail of those who kidnapped her when he caught up to her. She knew he was fast, but she couldn't believe it. He had summoned his nin dog Pakkun to help them find Hinata. There was a sense of urgency in his voice to when he said they needed to move fast.

'_Maybe he's worried about the Hyuuga eyes_?' No that didn't seem right, while she knew he would care that the eyes were taken away from Konoha, she also knew that he wouldn't have the strong a sense of urgency. Ditching all stealth for the sake of speed, it just wasn't his style.

She had always heard that Kakashi was fierce about his teammates. He would never let harm come to them. But was he always like that with people not on his team? Perhaps he was just fiercely loyal to any shinobi in Konoha. She had heard many stories of him putting himself in the line of fire on missions. It's not that he wanted suicide. More or less he just didn't want anyone else around him to die.

One way or another she was wondering why he was with her and why he wasn't acting as cool as he normally would. So she decided to question him.

"Kakashi why are you so urgent?"

Kakashi turned his head some to look at her. Surprise in his one visible eye. "Don't you want to save Hinata?"

Kurenai mentally slapped herself for the way she sounded when she asked that question.

"No that's not what I meant. I mean why are you here? I can understand why you would want to save help save her. But I am not sure why you are acting like you are."

Kakashi kept jumping branch to branch. She was starting to get agitated that he seemed to be ignoring the question. But before she could ask him again he answered her with one word.

"Naruto."

Surprise was evident in Kurenai's eyes. What about Naruto made him come to help her? Naruto wouldn't have asked Kakashi to come for him, he would have dropped whatever he was doing to come and help Hinata. That was just the kind of person he was, he was fiercely protective of his friends. So what exactly did Naruto have to do with all of this?

"I don't think I understand."

"She is very important to him."

"Well yeah. I know how protective he is of his friends…" She was interrupted by Kakashi quickly.

"No you don't understand."

Kurenai just kept following behind him. They were still moving as fast as they could, and they were totally distracted by their conversation, but they would be ready incase they caught up. She could tell by the serious look in his eye that he was in deep thought about what he was about to say. She decided it would be best to wait for him instead of pushing the issue.

"You know about Hinata's love for Naruto I'm sure." Kurenai nodded

That was quite the understatement. Kurenai realized it the first time she had seen Hinata anywhere near the boy and her feelings only seemed to grow for him over the years. The way she acted around him just screamed how she felt. She could never understand how Naruto couldn't figure out her feelings. It didn't make sense! There were so many signs for god sake.

"She is the first you know." The statement caught her off guard. What exactly did he mean?

"She is the first person to ever love Naruto. I have watched him a lot throughout his life, part of my promise to the Fourth…" Kakashi seemed to lose himself in thought, but caught back on quickly. "After all he has been through I won't let him lose her."

"Has it really been that bad for him?"

Kakashi nodded at the question. "I watched him a lot when I was an Anbu. It was horrifying the stuff he went through. I saved his life on at least a dozen occasions with out him knowing a thing. There were people often trying to kill him. It makes me wonder how it is that he turned out like he did. I know that I would have likely turned my back on the village."

Kurenai stayed silent the entire time. Listening to all of the information Kakashi was feeding to her about Naruto. She could admit that she like the boy. He was strong, caring, and honestly the most kind hearted person she had ever met. It was sometimes hard to believe he could be a ninja with how kind he was. And while she did like him she never really learned much about him, except through what she would hear through her own team.

"So you are doing this because you don't want the only person that has ever loved him to be taken away?" She asked

"Well actually Naruto figured it out several months ago." Kurenai's eyes went wide as she processed the information. So now Naruto knew about her love for him.

"So I take it he doesn't return the feelings then? Sine he hasn't told her anything?"

To her surprise Kakashi actually chuckled some. "No actually it's quite the opposite. You see after he found about it her, he did a lot of soul searching for himself. And let me tell you it was hard for him."

"Why?"

"Think about it Kurenai. This is the boy that grew up with no family, hated by everyone. Hell he didn't even have a single friend until he entered the academy and he met Iruka."

"So in other words…"

"Naruto has no idea what love is." Kakashi put it bluntly for her. That was what she was thinking after he told her what he did.

Kurenai had a sad look in her eyes as they continued running. She still had more questions though. "So what did he do?"

"He asked around. That's about as simple as it was. Of course some people took his questions as a joke at first. I remember when he first asked Sakura about it."

-Flash back-

Kakashi was sitting in his usual spot in a tree, observing as his students were waiting for him at the bride they would meet at. Of course it was only thirty minutes past the time they were supposed to meet, but he was reading a particularly good chapter in his book. He however was paying close attention to what they were doing, he was surprised when he heard Naruto's question though.

"Ne Sakura-chan?"

"What is it Naruto?"

"Umm…well…what is love?" Naruto asked. He seemed to be both a little embarrassed at asking the question and curious.

Sakura however looked at him incredulously. Like it was some sort of prank he was trying to pull on her. "Ha ha Naruto. This coming from the boy that asked me out on a date every day when he was younger." She was about to go on till she noticed the pained and sad look on Naruto's face. "Are you being serious?"

Naruto nodded his head weakly. "I… I never had any parents…or anyone to really care about me. I used to think I loved you, but now it's different. I…I just don't understand it."

Sakura looked at Naruto with tears in her eyes about what he was saying. "Oh I'm sorry Naruto. I didn't mean what I was saying."

"It's ok Sakura don't worry about it. I think I just need to try to find the answer myself." Naruto gave of a smile. But Kakashi could tell it was fake. Naruto walked away from the bridge and as soon as he thought he was out of sight Kakashi swore he saw silent tears running down his cheeks.

-End Flashback-

"So what did he discover through his soul searching?"

"He figured out he loves her. But he seems to have as hard a time telling her as she does telling him." Kakashi's eyes curved to show the slight smile he had at the thought. Kurenai smiled too as she realized that he students dream was coming true. He love felt the same way about her now. That just gave Kurenai more reason to want to rescue the girl now.

"And that's why I am here. I won't let the first person that he loves be taken from him. I have no idea what kind of effect that would have on him, but I know it wouldn't be good. He took Sasuke's leaving hard all those years ago. But now this…I have no idea how he will react. That's why we have to get to her." Kakashi said with determination in his eyes.

"Hai."

"It's not just that."

"What?"

"If he finds out what has happened, he will stop at nothing to save her. He will gladly sacrifice his life for hers. And he is not the son of the yellow flash for nothing. He CAN beat us to her if he finds out even now. From what I can tell the ones who kidnapped her are at least A-rank nins from cloud."

Kurenai only nodded her head in agreement. The two traveled even faster than before. It wasn't until half an hour later they felt a shockwave. A huge wave of chakra and killing intent just seemed to rip through the trees towards them. Both of the them practially flew backwards when they felt it hit.

Kakashi's eyes widened, he knew whose chakra this was. "Shit its Naruto. GO." Once again the three took off quickly. Pakkun was no longer needed since they could easily feel the battle taking place, but Pakkun just stuck around, Kakashi not bothering to send him home, and Pakkun wanting to see.

Five minutes later the chakra suddenly died out. The battle was apparently over. A few minutes later Pakkun sniffed the air a little deeper than he had before. "Kakashi, I smell blood. A lot of it." It didn't take long for Kakashi to start smelling it himself. He had one of the stronger noses of most people in Konoha.

Another five minutes later and they seemed to arriver at where the battle took place. There was blood every where. Along with blood was mangled body parts, and apparently weapons were also spread out amongst the trees. It was apparently a moving battles. It was constantly heading towards the boarder of fire country. They kept moving quickly, but still on guard for anything. Before they left the start of where it happened though Kurenai noticed something on the ground. It was lavender cloth….

'Oh no…they didn't.' Upon searching further she could see shreds of Hinata clothes on the ground. They were stripping her here…

Kakashi saw it too, and the rage only built up more inside of him. But worry was there also. It looked like Naruto came in when they were doing this, if that's true then there was no telling what Naruto would do.

They moved on through the battles scene carefully. From what Kakashi could tell there were at least four different bodies already, none were Naruto's. Kakashi pulled out a kunai immediately when he heard Kurenai gasp after she walked through a bush into a small clearing.

Kakashi's felt his heart practically stop at what he saw in front of him. There was Naruto. He was pinned to a tree ten feet up in the air by a large earth spike coming from the ground and going in his chest. Blood seemed to run down both the tree and the spike towards the ground.

Kakashi felt the tears in his eyes as he ran over to where the blond hung. Charging his legendary raikiri he smashed the spike into piece and caught Naruto before he hit the ground. Kakashi dropped to his knees and held the blond crying softly. Anguish washed over him.

"I told her Kakashi-sensei" Kakashi's eyes shot open and he looked down to see Naruto grinning weakly.

"I killed every one of them…they…they tried to rape her. I got here as they were shredding her clothes off her." Naruto had tears in his eyes as he spoke about what happened. He coughed up a little bit of blood as he continued. "I got her away for a minute and told her how I felt."

"Where is she Naruto." Kurenai asked, afraid that she had gone missing again.

Naruto weakly raised his hand over to where a tree was. "She's in the roots of that tree over there, she wanted to help me, but I used a mud wall to keep her safe."

Kurenai rushed over to where the tree was, upon seeing exactly where the mud wall was she set to work. She pulled out her Kunai and started breaking apart the wall. The wall finally crumbled all at once to reveal a crying Hinata. She only had her undergarments on and apparently Naruto's jacket.

"Hinata"

Hinata looked up quickly at the voice of her teacher. When she realized it truly was her she rushed over and hugged Kurenai with all her might. Kurenai was about to return the hug when Hinata broke off and ran in Naruto's direction. She instantly collapsed on the ground where he was and immediately began sobbing.

"Hey Hinata-chan. Don't worry I'll be alright."

"Oh no you won't." A voice came out from around the darkness of the woods around them.

Kakashi and Kurenai were already on guard as soon as the voice started to speak. Slowly 8 men walked out into the clearing. Each had an Anbu mask on, the symbol of cloud showing on them. Each had their weapons out and were making their way towards the group of leaf nins.

Hinata's focus never left Naruto. They just stared at each other wondering if this was the last minute they would have together. At that thought naruto did what he had been wanting to do for a while now, he grabbed Hinata and brought her into a kiss.

After he pulled her away he just stared into her eyes as his vision began to fade. He was beginning to feel cold all around himself. As his vision darkened he never noticed the other sets of feet land on the ground in the clearing as Konoha Anbu arrived.

XxXxXxXxX

He could smell that smell. It smelled sterile. Instantly he knew he was in the hospital. However one thing surprised him, he could smell something else also. It smelled like lilacs.

Slowly opening his eyes at the bright lights in the room he looked around for the smell. He was about to turn to the side when he realized he couldn't move. Looking down he realized why the smell was so close. There was a mess of indigo hair lying on his chest. Things just seemed to be right like this. He started to drift back to sleep, realizing his exhaustion.

'_Your all the reason in the world I need to fight._' He thought as he slipped back in to a blissful sleep.


End file.
